Fox News Sunday All Star Panel- 12/30/07:
CHRIS WALLACE: So starting with you, Juan, top three finishers, Republican, in Iowa.
JUAN WILLIAMS: Well, I think Romney has the bullets and he has the people on the ground, but I wouldn’t put aside the idea that people will say, “You know what? Huckabee is the guy.” So I would say Huckabee, Romney, McCain.
CHRIS WALLACE: Really? And McCain gets the third, which would help him in New Hampshire.
JUAN WILLIAMS: I think McCain is the guy coming right now from behind.
CHRIS WALLACE: Bill Kristol.
BILL KRISTOL: Romney wins, I think, pretty comfortably. Huckabee fades. McCain gains on Huckabee. And I think it wouldn’t be totally out of the question for McCain to sneak past Huckabee into second. But I think McCain is a strong third.
BILL KRISTOL: Yeah, I think Romney, Huckabee, McCain.
CHRIS WALLACE: Romney, Huckabee…
MORA LIASSON: Romney by a hair. I disagree with Bill on that. Romney by a hair, Huckabee, McCain.
Chris Matthews predictions:
“John McCain will be “one of the winners tonight with about 18 points.”
And now, some thoughts of News coverage of the aftermath of the IA caucus:
From Outside the Beltway:
Fred Thompson edged out John McCain in a photo finish for third. That defied expectations. Still, as Matt Yglesias notes, the press seem to be treating McCain as the one with momentum.
Conversely, left-for-dead Fred Thompson turns out to still have some residual support. And why not? After all, the idea of Fred Thompson — a totally normal, non-elderly orthodox conservative — makes a ton of sense. If his staff can somehow resuscitate their candidate, I think there’s clearly a market among the Republican faithful for what Thompson would be selling…
One blogger, here, makes an astute observation:
As the results came in tonight from Iowa, it appeared Fred Thompson would come in in third place (as I write, he’s still in third).
To my best memory, none of the pundits at Fox News Channel had predicted this week that Thompson would rank that high, yet instead of commenting on Thompson doing unexpectedly well, the pundits at Fox — when they talked about Thompson at all — joined Mike Allen of Politico in concluding that a third place finish means Thompson’s campaign is at death’s door.
…
The continued media refusal to give any serious attention to Thompson’s candidacy is baffling. Kathryn Jean Lopez posted an email at The Corner commenting on the lack of positive press coverage for Thompson, even when the news is good.
The Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott, Editor of the Examiner and a fellow at Heritage Foundation, opined:
Fred Thompson: The Quiet Man of 2008 Scores An Invisible Win
Let’s see now: Fred Thompson started way late, has had a tumultuous staff lineup, spent virtually nothing compared to others like Mitt Romney, was almost unseen in Iowa until three weeks ago, was either ignored or written off by the mainstream media (and many in the Blogosphere) and for the most part depended upon Internet devices like YouTube to get his message out.
Despite it all, Thompson finished third in Iowa, nosing ahead of the revived media darling John McCain , trailing only Multi-millions Mitt and the political pop-bottle rocket from Arkansas. That 17-minute conversation on YouTube earlier this week keyed a gathering recognition detected by Zogby that Thompson has a serious case to make.
And yet, hardly anybody among the talking heads this morning seems to be talking about Thompson. Even with a mediocre showing in New Hampshire next week, Thompson seems to have positioned himself to make this thing a three-way race heading into February.
And David Limbaugh gives Fred his another encouraging endorsement.
I’m not belittling Senator McCain’s showing in Iowa at all. In all the months that I’ve contributed here at www.Race42008.com, I have always been respectful of the Senator from Arizona, even when I disagreed with his immigration bill.
However, one can see why the Thompson supporters are becoming more and more stubborn. They are getting angrier and angrier over the coverage of their candidate.
More to come later…
January 4th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I’m glad to see Thompson doing well. My only concern is that he and Romney (imo the truest conservatives) will split the conservative base and by the time one of them drops out it will be too late b/c another canidate will have taken all the momentum.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Tommy. Yes, you were right about Fred beating McCain, but check the intrades. Fred is flat, McCain is on cloud 9.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I agree TO…FDT got screwed last night. People continued to say that McCain was the big victor. FDT got bashed for not campaigning, he looked worse than McCain a month or so ago. FDT didn’t get a bump in NH and yet after 3rd place, he gets nothing!
January 4th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
The prediction about Thompson has been consistent from almost the day after he entered the race. He will have some support everywhere. He will win nowhere- except maybe TN.
It stands. He won’t win NH. He won’t win SC. After which stop does he depart?
January 4th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Daily Ras Poll Out:
McCain 18
Romney 17
Huckabee 16
Giuliani 14
Thompson 13
Paul 6
January 4th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Do we even know the official count? Did Thompson officially beat McCain anyway?
Anyhoo, new RAS out. I’m holding my breath because I’m having a tough time getting anyone to post the Zogby poll that has Jmac up in NH.
Daily RAS:
John McCain 18%
Mitt Romney 17
Mike Huckabee 16%
Rudy Giuliani 14%
Fred Thompson 13%
January 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Tommy – your guy is getting screwed by the media. He beat McCain and could still win SC. While FDT was making a good showing Fox, CNN, MSNBC were all too busy interviewing hizzoner who received less than 1/2 of the the votes of RuPaul.
I always said a Romney/Thompson ticket wouldn’t work but I almost want to see it now just to PISS the MSM off.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Fred-heads and Rudyites both have legitimate reasons to be angry. After all, every interview has to include something about Kerik, even though it happened months ago, and about that police protection bs (which, the NYT of all things, proved false). The media never lets the candidates actually discuss the issues, they just want them to talk about the horse-race aspect.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
OK, i’ll get the ras up if nobody is already on it
haven’t seen the zogby numbers, so if someone doesn’t get them up as well, I will.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Sampo,
I think Thompson took 3rd by 200-300 votes.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I think Thompson is the only one to blame for this. He have some good ideas but he hasn’t show that he really want to be President.
On the other hand, I’m glad that Thompson beat McCain for the third place in Dumb-Iowa just because he’s not gonna drop out before NH, The Rino won’t get the Fred voters, Obama will sweep independents and the liberals repubs will split between McRino and Nutsckabee.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Jonathan – you are stretching it on hizzoner. Why, exactly should Rudy even be mentioned until Florida? The fact that he got more air time than the 2nd or 3rd place finishers in IA is corrupt, at best.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
IF this race was about issues and not about populism this would be a totally different race. Today I am almost ashamed to be an Iowan
January 4th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
OMG¡ Rudy will fall to 5th place.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Why would it baffle anyone that the media has it out for the 2 most conservative candidates in the race? Fred is my 2nd choice, then Rudy. I wish Fred would ramp up the attacks against McCain and Huckabee, and get some life going again. I would LOVE to see Fred and Mitt team up as the conservative ticket, but that is highly unlikely.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
IA Hawk
Hold your head up. We have plenty to be satisfied with. They wrote our guy off, and today, he’s still alive.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
If McCain wins NH. Romney is terminal.
If McCain then wins SC, he will be the nominee.
If instead Huckabee wins SC, McCain will be limping.
In Florida, Republicans will get to choose whether to allow Huckabee to be the nominee, try to help a limping McCain or hail Mary to Giuliani as a savior from Huckabee.
If Giuliani loses Florida, he is done.
If he wins, Feb 5th, Republicans will decide, Huckabee or Giuliani? Over a cliff certainly taking the Congress with him or over a cliff maybe.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Your right Tommy. The fight goes on!
January 4th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
No one is mentioning the important factor here. Thompson essentially moved all of his campaign to Iowa about a month ago and has been campaigning and running TV Ads. McCain had hardly campaigned in the state and spent no money on TV and sent out only 1 mailer, he hardly spent any money at all. And for that Dummy Romney to say that it was a blow to McCain b/c he finished 4th was laughable. someone should let Romney know that he spent over 20 MILION DOLLARS on the state and McCain spent about Half A Million Dollars and still came in 4th, close to 3rd, and only 10 behind Romney, what McCain accomplished last night was amazing. Opposing Ethanol and with his summer stance on Immigration, as well as having spent hardly anytime or money in Iowa, getting that much support was amazing in Iowa and should give him alot of momentum in New Hampshire where i hope he cleans the floor with Mittens.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
No one is “Done” – We have along fight left in front of us.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
#17 between Dumb-iowa and SC are two long weeks with primaries in Wyoming, NH and Michigan. When came the day of SC Nutsckabee will be done.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Well, if romney falls call me a fredhead. I can’t stand mccain.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Fred is a better guy than McCain, but McCain is being hailed by the media as the up-and-comer while Fred is being ignored because McCain has prospects in New Hampshire and Fred doesn’t. Fred had no choice but to focus on Iowa, and he made the decision after 1st and 2nd places were already locked up, so he did as well as he could do there. Unfortunately, there is no winning scenario for Fred. The best he can do is devote himself full-time to South Carolina and hope for a win.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Not to mention that Fred’s Fundraising is very poor from what i hear, and i really dont see how a distant 3rd place, almost 4th place finish will help much with Fundraising for him, and add the fact that the media is talking all about McCain and not Thompson, that wont help with Fundraising either, but we shall see i guess…
January 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
SDGOP,
Romney will stay in the race as long as there is any hope. He won’t be forced to drop out because of money. Money-wise, Fred, Rudy, and McCain are all on life-support. Fred can’t stay in after South Carolina if he doesn’t win there, and there’s not much hope of that. McCain can’t stay in after New Hampshire if he doesn’t win there. He’s running his campaign on borrowed money right now. Rudy’s fund-raising has all but dried up, but if he doesn’t win in Florida, or at least make what is perceived to be a strong showing, he will be forced out of the campaign. Mitt can stay in as long as he wants, but if it is hopeless at some point, he has the intelligence to drop out. He will only do that if Huckabee has it locked up at that point.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
McCain’s fundraising is on life support……I almost came out of my chair laughing so hard on that one…
McCain’s fundrasing number’s are taking off, they said that December was triple what the best month fundrasing they ever have had, and already in January the contributions have risen handily. McCain is far from life support my friend, do better researh next time!
January 4th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Bryan,
His numbers have been coming up and will go straight back down again after New Hampshire. The key point is that he’s coming off of disastrous fund-raising months, so tripling them isn’t much of an accomplishment. His burn rate has more than tripled. Check it out.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Simply put – the media hates Thompson’s guts and loves McCain to death. Thompson is labeled now by the media as not only being lazy, but also being a loser – he is dead meat. Sorry, Tommy, some of it is Thompson’s fault, some his campaign manager’s fault, some the media’s fault. When all 3 are working against you, you can’t survive.